Okay so it took me way too long to get back to the Blog. I arrived home from NYC Sunday night only to turn around and drive to Woodstock to visit my parents Monday morning. I got back Sunday night. My first intention was to update the Blog in Woodstock. I could blame my parents dinosaur Internet connection on my not doing so, but the truth is I just wanted a break from ALL of the normal things I do on a daily basis. My second intention was to update my Blog first thing on Monday, but man, it takes awhile to get back into the swing of things!!! So here I am good intentions, not so good follow through.
So my trip to New York. Ahhhhh New York. Lovely, beautiful New York City, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I, of course, remember the days when I was itching so bad to get the HELL out of there but enough time had definitely passed where I can blissfully enjoy every inch of that city without a negative thought even crossing my mind once. But more on that later.
So my trip started out with a flight from STL to O'hare and as I was wondering to myself if I would ever make it past the first leg of my trip or perhaps be stuck in the Abyss that IS the Chicago O'Hare Aiport the man next to me struck up a conversation. In all of the many many times I have flown, I have never had this happen. At first I was mildly annoyed...these days I rarely get several minutes of quiet time to read or THINK with taking care of a toddler all day while being pregnant and I was looking forward to finishing my book, but after a while I found Matt to be rather interesting and our conversation made me think a lot afterwards. He was reading his own book and he pointed to the word "superfluous" and asked me what it meant. From there I found out that he is from a very small town outside of Cleveland but works in Pittsburgh most of the time and travels 3-4 times a week, sometimes as far as China. His trips abroad sometimes last up to 3 months. He has a wife and three small children and I commented that it must be hard on them with him being away all the time and he confirmed that. He loves traveling for work and is very interested in what he does, a contractual brick layer who works for a small steel manufacturing company, but when abroad he never goes outside of the hotel or office and never goes site seeing! He's been to 35 countries and never explores them whilst he's there....I was dumbfounded. He loves traveling but that's only because of the additional money he makes and the projects he's assigned to. He never went to College but it's obvious he is paid very well for what he does. A different perspective that what I am used to for sure. Nevertheless, he was swell and I was glad to have talked with him.
I did eventually make it out of O'Hare with only a 45 minute delay(!!!) and into NYC. After a quick cab ride I made it to Amanda's apartment in Chelsea. We enjoyed a lovely dinner at Planet Thai (super sweet Lucite chairs and a surveillance system set up all as decor - FANTASTIC). The food was great and we had a lovely conversation (TWO adult conversations in ONE day....WOW) and then we walked home. On the way home I commented on all the loveliness that is New York, the beautiful brownstone apartments, the energy....and OH! look at that cute little tree over there and Amanda chuckled and pointed out the 6 foot piles of trash that lined the other side of the street I happened to overlook. Saturday (dress day) was a WHIRLWIND. We had to hightail it Uptown to make it to an appointment with a dressmaker. After sometime found out that they were going to be able to work with Amanda's free dress, met Amanda's amazing friends, and started looking all the dress' accouterments. Time FLEW BY and wouldn't you know it? We missed lunch and finally sat down for a glass of champagne and the day was more than half over. We ended our day with a slice of Pizza from Waldo's and a trip to Macy's at 34th Street to look for shoes and my bridesmaid dresses. I honestly could not believe my trip was nearly over and I would be back on a plane the next morning.
One thing about this trip that struck me was the pure wonderfulness of Amanda's friends. Of course, there is Debby, who was my college roommate and oh it was so nice to see her again and we just picked up where we left off like no time had passed. And then there was Carly and Michelle. Former Aisecer's (errrr...but don't ask them about Aiesec just this minute), we all got along so well and shared sooo many laughs and I realized how much I missed female interaction and friendship.
Anyway, I wish I had a picture to share but HA (!) there was no time for pictures!
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